He's My Favorite Shadow Daddy

Let has made a wall clock that I haven't seen done in literally decades!  I used to always have two or three of these on the wall in the store when I was in PA and for good reason-  people loved them and they always sold well.  Let's version absolutely reveals why this was so popular.  The only thing she isn't thrilled with is the size of the hands that came with the clockwork so she may replace them with larger hands.  Nonetheless, this is stunning!

 

 

 

Linda F put her own spin on a popular Tuesday morning pattern. Instead of using all textured clears Linda has opted to use color and it works wonderfully! In fact, seeing this made in color makes it even resemble Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree Of Life even more, which is a very good thing.  And let's not forget to mention that her border glass choice is perfect!

  

 

 

Mary Grace completed her Initialed Baseball which will be displayed in a stand as a table piece.  Now that this is finished she'll be moving along to three different Volley Ball's with initials.

 

 

 

Betty made this Cross and Dove Suncatcher in just one class. She's made more than a few of these in the past so that's probably why she's got this pattern down to a science and can make it so quickly.

 

 

 

Susan R's first Flowerpot Ornament was completed this week and she was well underway on soldering her second one when she packed everything up and headed for home. Expect to see a second nearly identical version of this very shortly.

Zoe is cutting out her Duck Panel and is trying to bring a nice balance between artistic expression and reality into the mix. I believe that her duck looks great so I think she's hit upon a perfect harmonious blend of colors here.

 

 

 

Melissa's newest window can be found in the cartoon series 'Bluey'.  This is going to be a gift and it is featured prominently throughout the cartoon as it resides in the room that Bluey and Bingo share together.  Melissa is making short work of this as she got it all cut and ground in just one night and that is no mean feat! 

 

 

 

Susan has her Texas Longhorn all ground now and for its picture below she's placed it under the 3D wire frame that it will eventually hang behind. The wire frame is nice on its own but I have to admit that it really comes to life with the glass behind. Or at least it comes to life as much as a piece of skull art can!

 

 

 

Martha is working on a multi colored Fleur De Lis using a Mardi Gras color scheme.  In just one night she's managed to get all of the pieces to this cut out and I have to say that her cutting is wonderful because none of the pieces that you see in the picture have been ground even though it might look as though they have been.

 

  

 

 

Next we see that we have two of the same patterns being made with two very different methods of making them. Cindy goes for the 'grind as you cut' method so although she has fewer pieces of glass cut out than Martha does, Cindy's are already ground. 

 

  

 

 

Linda L's Mickey is looking great and there's no mistaking the pool vibe that this mouse exudes. Yes, his hand looks a little off but that will be completely fixed once some wire work is added to his hand. With her background now cut out Linda will next begin grinding and then tacking this together.

 

 

 

With all of the pieces to her Multi-Colored Elephant cut and ground, June has begun the fine art of foiling! At least this part of the building process is relaxing because you get to sit down and take your time while you are doing it. June's grinding skills have come along nicely because everything here fits together like a two peas in a pod!

 

  

 

 

Fill-ins. That's all that's left to cut here in Bee's Dandelion Tribute Window. There are just the flower stems left to go and then she can get a border on this and begin soldering.

 

  

 

 

This week Judy got her Carousal Horse all wrapped and tacked and which means that she can next grind her background pieces for a perfect fit.   Tacking the horse together before grinding the background ensures a nice snug fit for all of the pieces and prevents the pieces that make up the horse itself from slipping and sliding while she grinds her background. 

 

  

 

 

Let's Rooster Window is shaping up to be a beautiful piece of art indeed.   With all of the glass (save for the border) cut out she's begun foiling her pieces so that she can tack it all together and then get her border cut.  Expect to see that happen when she returns next week.

 

 

Ann got a lot of grinding accomplished on her Round Cross Window. you can clearly see the cross this week which means that there aren't many pieces left to go before she starts foiling all of this glass.

 

  

 

 

There's only one piece of glass missing in the 'motor' portion of Cheryl's Harley Davidson window which means that she will be moving over to CYCLES very soon now.  It may have taken some time for her to get this far but it's not about the destination-- it's about the ride!

  

 

Lorrie just couldn't have her baby elephant headless so she finished the cutting and grinding on that part of her Sugar Elephants Window and will move on back to her underwater scene when she returns.

 

  

 

MiMi managed to get four more egg cartons of glass cut out thus ending the cutting for her background glass pieces.

 

  Easter eggs, 

Pretty and funny

But where, oh, where

Is the Easter Bunny?

 

  

 

And Lara is about to begin work on this round Bird Window featuring a male and a female Cardinal.  However, before that happens Lara will return to her Louisiana Collage Window now that we have the background glass for it.   Expect to see that in out next post.

  

 

And with that, like a unicorn, I'm off to spread my magic elsewhere!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Well That Sounds Vaguely Ominous

Lara's Books and Flowers was a n idea from a similar design that she saw on the internet however that version was surely going to fall apart due to all of the hing points and straight lines throughout the piece.  We took the idea and 'sturdied' it up by adding flowers and repositioning books and pages somewhat leaving us with this very rugged version that Lara did excellent work on!

 

 

 

Kerry has completed his LOVE Window just in time for Valentines day to the delight of Jeanne who, I believe from the post that she made, loves this window.  People often ask how you get the word LOVE into the glass not realizing that it's simply the result of well placed lead lines. 

 

 

 

This week we get to see a new Cardinal design that Cindy made.   The key feature to this one is the extensive wire work that gets accented with little glass beads on their ends along with a looping wire that forms a heart on the breast of the bird.

 

 

Does anyone here remember good ol' Two-fer Betty? This week she's Four-fer Betty as she wrapped up the work on four Silverware Dragonflies and four Cardinals as well. Yes, I know you can only see two of each but trust me when I say that there's more that I just didn't take pictures of.

After finishing her Seagull and Sunset Window Zoe decided to make a small Duck Window.   She didn't care for the idea of the dragonfly in the upper corner of the window so Zoe is leaving that out of her finished version.  I wouldn't be surprised if she has this all cut out upon her return because she certainly got a good head start on it in just one class.

 

 

 

Barbara really made some fantastic progress as she managed to get all of the background glass and the cross ground for her uniquely shaped Cross Window. In fact, it fits together so nicely that you can't even tell that there's any water glass at all in the picture below!

 

 

Susan D was grinding away at her Texas Longhorn Skull and only has a few pieces left to go before she begins wrapping this and then finishing it off. There's some beautiful work here and I love how she's positioned the grain of the glass throughout this.  It matches up but doesn't align perfectly which is actually perfect for a window like this.   It's even given me an idea for a pattern that I hope to make in the months to come.

 

 

 

Cindy has begun work in earnest on her Fancy Fleur De Lis. Whether this ends up as a stand alone hanging or a window will be interesting to see. If she chooses a stand alone hanging then the straight line across the 'band' of the Fleur De Lis will need to be addressed or else this will surely split into two pieces. As a window though, well it will be completely solid.  If she chooses the stand alone version  I believe I've come up with a simple elegant solution to handle the situation.

 

  

 

June is a beast! Her Multi-Colored Elephant has been completely ground and it looks GRRRRREAT!  The eyes still have to be cut but in all honestly they are are simple enough to be left out and added as an afterthought (as well as the tusks). That said, I have no doubt that they will be filled in when we see this again.

  

 

 

With the first of her two Flowerpot Ornaments all soldered and ready for staking, Susan R will be ready to take this home when she returns to grace one of her flower pots.   And do you see that 'pile' of glass on the upper right of the picture?  That's her second ornament all foiled and ready to be soldered.

 

  

 

As I edited Linda's Mickey picture last week I noticed that Mickey's face had been cut out of white glass which made him look more than a little ashy.   I figured I'd say something to her when she returned to class but before that happened Linda texted me and asked why I didn't tell her that Mickey looked like a ghost! Now I have to say that sometimes things slip by me in person but then they become apparent when I edit the pictures that I take each week.   That said, I'm glad that Linda discovered the problem on her own and when she came back in I saw that she had already re-cut and ground Mickey's face.   Now that he's been tacked together Linda is ready to cut out her background!

 

 

 

I know that it's hard to see in the small picture here but if you click on it you can see the first sheet of glass that MiMi traced the background pieces for her lamp on.  There's another sheet of glass about half this size with even more pieces traced upon it and I will bet dollars to doughnuts that MiMi will be cutting a lot of tiny BG pieces upon her return!

 

Judy's Carousel Horse is almost completely ground and she's following a very important stained glass rule:  Never grind the background glass until the subject has been ground first.   And that's just what Judy did here.  The bright green background will be cut AFTER she tacks this together with solder.

 

  

 

 

The Cross in Ann's Cross Window is a bit obscured by her background pieces but you can see that she's making excellent progress grinding her BG pieces starting with the right hand side. As the background gets ground more and more of the cross will be revealed until this is ready to be foiled.

 

There's an interesting story that belongs to Linda F's Flower Of Life Window this week. She came in needed a border and after we cut the strips we discovered that something was VERY wrong with her window because the measurement across the top was larger than the bottom measurement by a whopping half inch! It seems that when I drew this for her I somehow mis-marked a measurement. Luckily we managed to fix it by grinding the difference off of the angled panel and then swapping that center panel to the end.  By the time Linda left we had fixed the issue as well as added the perfect border to this.  And that goes to show you that even perfect Paul can make a mistake. Very rarely though-- very, VERY rarely! 😊

 

 

 

Shelley's Cat Window is coming together and now that Toot's eyes have mostly been cut out she'll be able to correctly position them and cut them into place. I always make eyes separately and then tack them into position because it prevents grinding errors from making the subject cross eyed.

 

  

 

Week by week, piece by piece Sheri gets a little closer to the end of her large Koi Fish Window.  She's still not sure what color the heads of these fish will be but she's carefully considering that problem as she works on the sections that she IS sure about.

 

  

 

 

Let was so very close to completing her Stained Glass Clock that it was it was a bit upsetting to NOT get a finished picture of it. When class was over all she had left to do was to wash and color it after which she'd attach the clock work to the back. She has send me a picture of the clock face after she washed and colored it at home but I didn't want to share that with you this week only because I want you all to be amazed at just how lovely this finished piece is when we return next week.

 

 

 

 

Lorrie's baby elephant in her 'Sugar' Elephant Window is coming together quickly.  She's adopted the Grind-As-You-Cut approach and when you cut this perfectly I never complain about that.  She may very well go back to her Under Water Scene next week now that the glass for her water has arrived so it may be a few weeks before we see the baby elephant gets his head attached.

 

  

 

With the front side of her second Corner Accent Soldered there is no doubt that Kandise will have this completed when she leaves next week.  Once the soldering on the back side gets done she'll get some hooks on this, wash it all up, color it. 

  

 

With essentially only fill-in's and the rose in the center of the cross left to cut, Bee is fast approaching her endgame on this piece. It's been a labor of love all the way through and the love is going to be thoroughly apparent in the end result.  This will be a tribute window made with love.

 

  

 

Lastly we look at Cheryl's Harley Davidson Window. She's got most of the MOTOR section ground now but will need to cut out the center of one of the 'O's that apparently got lost in the shuffle. It won't be long until Cheryl moves on down to the word CYCLES after which the rest of this window will be easy curves with a few straight lines.

 

 

And there you have it!

 

Toodles!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

My Tranquility Needs Refurbishing

 Zoe's Sunset and Seagull on the Water Window has been completed!  As always her work was outstanding and since this is only her forth window it stands out even more.   Her water shading is perfectly staged and her willingness to utilize the white in her border glass by arranging it in opposing corners gives the window an extra bit subtle yet beautiful flair.  What's not to love here?  

 

 

 

Martha's got a lock on Christmas of 2025 as she now has eight Christmas Ornament Suncatchers ready for the end of the year!  These are not only colorful-- they are absolutely Vibrant with a capital V and will surely make great gifts.

 

Lorrie's Colorful Elephant Window is going to truly light up the room when it is completed. Although it's hard to see she already has numerous pieces near the bottom of the window cut and ground. I have to say that her work has jumped up another notch when I look at what she's accomplished this week!

 

  

 

 

We need a name for this pattern and I've decided to call it the Tulips of Life in an obvious reference to Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree Of Life design which is very similar. At any rate, Linda F began grinding her window and you can tell by the amount of pins (as well as their placement) that she's ready to start foiling. I love that she added color to this design which we've seen done many times but only ever in assorted clear glass textures.  She's made it hers!

  

 

 

Let's Flower Clock only needs a border on it to finish off the glass cutting. Since I've made this before I know for a fact that if you follow the pattern for the borders you will need different widths. To fix that we are tacking this together BEFORE adding the orders, cutting the strips the same width and then adjusting the angles accordingly.

  

 

 

Shelley has jumped on over to making a Cat Window which she drew from a picture of her cat Tootie who passed away about two week ago.   She's not only making windows, she's now learning how to trace over a picture to make a stained glass pattern.  You never want to forget your pet after they've passed and this is help to keep The Big Toot in Shelley's thoughts for years to come.

 

  

 

 

Cindy is making a few Cardinal suncatchers that will be topped off with wire work. One of the wires will form a heart in the bird's breast, some will define feathers while others hold small beads which act as accent pieces that decorate the ends of her suncatcher.

 

  

 

 

June has been plugging away at the grinder like so many of our other students and I have got to say that her grinding is top  notch.   All of her curves flow smoothly with no sharp points and the fit of all of the pieces are well worth bragging about!

  

 

 

 

Kandise is almost finished with the wrapping of her 2nd (and final) piece of her pair of corner Accent Pieces. We're going to make an adjustment or two on the fitting (things always grow a distort after all the pieces are foiled and I can guarantee that this will be a perfect mirror image to the first piece.

 

  

 

Kerry's LOVE window will certainly be completed in time for Valentines day because as your can see he's just finished soldering the back side of it. Since this is the back side I feel the need to point out the fact that it almost says EVIL in reverse! Maybe that's just me though...

 

  

 

 

Barbara has a lot of the glass cut out (all that she can, actually) for her Cross Window.  She switched over from a clear textured glass Cross to a colored one since it stands out so much better and now she's ready to grind away on this.the strips for the corner pieces have been cut on the strip cutter but she won't cut the angles on them until this has been tacked together.

 

  

 

 

Mimi has been cutting away and therefore filling up Egg Cartons at an alarming rate! Remember that she's got 3 of the same pieces in each spot that an egg would normally reside. Each set of three is then numbered so she'll be able to find things easily when it is time to assemble her Lamp. Organization is the key here.

 

  

 

Judy got all of her small Carousel Horse Window cut out and will begin grinding when she comes back in.   You can already see almost exactly what this window will look like when it's finished because it fits together nicely even before having been ground.

 

 

 

Susan D is making a Texas Longhorn Skull which will hang behind a 3D wire frame of the same design that this was literally traced from. Having the stained glass behind the framework will give it a little more depth and make it stand out better when it is hanging.  This is all cut out but not one piece has been  ground which means that she's done some impressive cutting on this!

 

  

Linda L's Mouse is looking kinda like a Mickey Mouse! That's her desired effect and she's definitely accomplished it with a minimum amount of effort. Once Mickey is tacked together she will get her background cut out and after that she'll essentially be home free!

 

  

 

 

Sheri's Koi Window is coming together now that everything has been cut out. She's begun grinding from the bottom left  hand corner and her pieces are fitting together gloriously.

 

  

 

 

With everything tacked together save for the cross and rose in the upper right corner of the sun Bee is just about finished cutting glass for her Dandelion Tribute Window. There are still a few background pieces to cut as well but that will go much easier now that Bee has tacked what she has together which will prevent things from shifting around.  She'll be soldering this before you know it.

 

 

 

Ann has all of her background cut out and is now fairly sure that she is sticking to her original idea of just using two colors for the background. Once this has been ground and she sees exactly what this what look like she may possibly decide to swap some of the pieces for another color but until then she's just going to keep grinding away on this as it is

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Susan R's pair of Flowerpot Decorations are ready for solder and I have no doubt that at least one of these will be completed upon her return. She makes quick work of these and displays them proudly in her flowerpots.

  

 

Cheryl has her 'MOTOR' letters all cut and ground and next she'll be filling in all of the pieces that make up the background of the top MOTOR section. Her glass is picked and her cutter has been primed so she's raring to go!

  

 

Betty is making a quartet of Cardinals of her own and these four have almost been completely ground which means that they ready for soldering along with a bit of wire work when Betty comes back in. The pattern shows holly leaves to the left of each bird but Betty is omitting them so that these can be hung year round.

  

 

 

Let has also begun picking out colors for her Rooster Window and has decided that his tail feathers will be made with assorted iridized glasses to make the feather appear to be glistening in the sunlight.

 

  

 

 

Lastly we have Annette who will be making a rather fancy Fleur De Lis Window whose pattern has certainly caught our Tuesday night student's attention.  We may be seeing a lot of these being made in the near future!

 

 

And there you have it.  Do the day and let the day do you! 

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks